Vienna Choral Society

Farewell, 2011-2012!

seikilos rehearsal

(l to r) Jim Whitcomb, Jennifer Rodgers Beach (at piano), Melinda Bauers, Kristy King, and Frank Carr polish Leonin's "Allelulia Pascha Nostrum (1160-1180 AD)"

Another season has ended, and I am beyond proud of everything we’ve done this year. In spite of a freak snow in October (the only bit of winter we saw all year!), we filled the house for Music From the Big Screen. Our Christmas Stories concert, with dancing sugarplums and dancing children, proved that our audience doesn’t just come for the cocoa, and the Celtic Arts Festival brought together an entire community to share music, culture and food. And last night’s  Seikilos to U2 concert? A triumph – just a joy to sing such diverse music for such an appreciative crowd.

In addition to four great concerts, Vienna Choral Society had some other things to look back on with pride. Caroling during Historic Vienna’s Holiday Stroll, performing at the Mayor’s Reception, singing at local nursing homes. Our choir is as large as it’s been in years, and our audiences have broken box office records.

There are too many to thank for everything that happened this year, but it would be so rude not to try. So here goes. . . .

[Read more…]

Singing In The Round

 

The Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen (2009), designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel

The Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen - terraced seats allow for a better view and sound for all.

Ada Lousie Huxtable’s review of Victoria Newhouse’s book, “Site and Sound” is good reading for anyone who enjoys live music, especially of the formal-ish/performed in a concert hall variety of live music. Huxtable, like many others, makes some trenchant observations of how our idea of performance spaces came to be and, frankly, how lame they are at times.

What really happened during the Byzantine artistic and political process of creating Lincoln Center? How did a group of “patrician white males,” as she so coolly characterizes them, and a consortium of architects working at a time when modernism had developed its own “establishment power elite” create the model that set the conservative consensus for a generation of performing-arts centers that followed? (Think Washington’s Kennedy Center, a bland box of posh banality in a location of daunting public inaccessibility.)

Needless to say, that last bit about the Kennedy Center resonates. And then some!

[Read more…]

Why Not Stick To Traditional Concerts?

Vienna Choral Society Poster for the Celtic Arts Festival - March 17, 2012 (double click to enlarge)

It’s “concert week” for the VCS, but instead of perfecting our line-up, getting our folders in perfect order and pressing our concert blacks (well, okay, we’re doing that too!) – VCS is preparing for a festival!  It’s a joyous and, in my mind, BEAUTIFULLY executed chaos of artists:

  • from the full 75-member chorus to a minstrel and his guitar (Rich Follett), from a Celtic fusion band (Tinsmith) to the more traditional Irish Breakfast Band and from a gaggle of energetic youth drummers (the VES Jammers) to two accomplished youth soloists – a dancer (Katherine Hughes) and a fiddler (Eammon Carolan).
  • Jewelers, weavers, bakers, printers, facepainters, crafters

We’re a choral society – why not have you sit down and sing you a concert?  Well, lots of reasons! [Read more…]

Celtic Arts Festival: Who, What, Where, When?

Vienna Choral Society's Celtic Arts Festival Schedule, March 17, 2012

Vienna Choral Society's Celtic Arts Festival Schedule, March 17, 2012

Here’s a sneak peek at who’s singing where next weekend at the Celtic Arts Festival.

Join us for an afternoon of music and art.

March 17
from 1 – 5 pm
Saturday, March 17, 2012 
at Vienna Elementary School

We’ll have this schedule conveniently in the concert program as you walk in the door, but since some of you have asked, we’re happy to give you a quick look!

So. Got your tickets yet? They’re available right now, buy them online.

The Pure Pasty! Reason 5 And Perhaps 6, 7, and 8 (Of Many) To Come To Celtic Arts Festival

The Celtic Arts Festival is an afternoon of not just music, but dance and culture too. And few things are as elemental to culture as food. Behold, The Pure Pasty!

Pasties from The Pure Pasty

delicious pasties with savory fillings - all sorts!

Per the company’s website, “Some say it’s the oldest food to go.” And, “the pasty is best known as the traditional food of Cornish tin miners (dating back to the 16th to late 19th centuries). The pasty was easy to carry and provided a hearty, substantial meal to keep a hard-working miner going all day. When the tin in Cornwall was mined out, the miners emigrated all over the world and took their dish with them, including to parts of the United States.”

We asked Mike “The Pasty” Burgess to tell us more about himself, his company, and pasties. He obliged, just has he has when some of us have gone in to ask for that one last pasty. [Read more…]

Tinsmith! Reason 4 (Of Many) To Come To Celtic Arts Festival

It’s always a mystery how a conversation will go with an artist. Some are very focused, so don’t really do interviews, and then there are others where even an email exchange turns into a fun interlude. And so it is with Tinsmith. We asked Brooke Parkhurst and Rowan Corbett a few questions and got some interesting replies.

Tinsmith

Tinsmith: l to r, Brooke Parkhurst, Henry Cross, Rowan Corbett

Q: Five/fun things we should about Tinsmith?

A: Rowan and I have been playing together for 14 years – longer than either of us have been in committed relationships! Our name comes from the traditional occupation of the Irish gypsies, also known as Tinkers. Irish gypsies are not Rom (ethnic Gypsies from Europe/Central Asia) but are a subset of the Irish people. We started out playing at Renaissance Fairs all over the country [Read more…]

Rich Follett: Reason 3 (Of Many) To Come To Celtic Arts Festival

So we’ve been getting to know some of the performers slated to perform at the Celtic Arts Festival we’re presenting in less than two weeks. Up next, Rich Follett.

 

We asked Mr. Follett a few questions, who very kindly answered!

[Read more…]

Celtic Arts Festival – Here’s How We’re Sounding

VCS Celtic Fest Mini Image

VCS Celtic Arts Festival Small Poster Art (artwork by Steven Keen/Keen Method)

If you’ve been to our most recent concerts you know we’re no longer a “stand up on risers, sing, bow, and leave” kinda choir. Our performances have motion, and movement, and dance, and interactivity. And some of it comes from us when we sing in the round. Here’s a sneak peak and what’s in store at the Celtic Arts Festival, when it’s our turn up on the stage.

Choir Demo

As Karen Akers, President of VCS puts it, “Big thanks and huge shout-out to Marco Sabatini of Professional Recording Services for making us sound like we weren’t in rehearsal, and that we weren’t walking in a circle around the room as we sang!”

VES Jammers – Reason 1 (Of Many) To Come To Celtic Arts Festival

VES Jammers

VES Jammers (3rd - 6th grade, Vienna Elementary School students led by music teacher David Reynolds)

There’s going to be a lot to choose from at the Celtic Arts Festival. Not the least of which will be the VES Jammers. They’re an auditioned ensemble of 3rd through 6th grade students at Vienna Elementary School, the venue of the festival. VES uses a combination of traditional and non-traditional instruments  – garbage cans, for instance. Take a look! [Read more…]

About

Welcome to VCS! We are a teaching, non-audition choir where all voices and skill levels are welcome. We invite you to learn more about who we are, what we do, and if there's a place for you in our choir.

More questions? Drop us a line at

Click here for our terms and conditions

For Singers

Active choir members, find what you need here for rehearsal tracks, registration and dues, any membership updates, section leader information, Friends of VCS info, and more.

Contact

703-349-7150

PO Box 310, Vienna, VA 22183

Sponsorship

Would you like to sponsor us? We have a loyal, growing, diverse, educated, and discerning audience that considers it worth supporting the arts. Be part of this community! Email us with the word 'sponsorship' in the subject line at